Idea Development

After filming the texting scenes on the bench I found that there were several issues with filming the phone screen as the conversation happened. For a start, it took to long for each text to be sent and recieved meaning there was a lot of dead time. I tried to solve this by cutting out the dead time inbetween but because the phone was handheld this meant the footage jumped around a lot because of the changes in position. To solve this I have decided to replace the scene with one of Lauren sitting on the bench texting and I will then put the texts up on screen next to her, as seen in popular TV show 'Sherlock.'

This video shows the different text graphics I could use. I want the graphics I use to be more interesting than it just appearing and then disappearing so here are the more interesting alternative I have found.

Filming Log - Entry 2

Today I managed to film all of the parts to scene 4. This includes both parts to the corridor section, the phone screen and Lauren considering.

Scene 4

When filming this scene I found that my origional idea didn't quite work. For this reason this scene now opens with a shot of Chloe as she shuts her locker. She then turns round and sees Lauren, she smiles at her. (mid-shot) The shot then changes to an over-the-shoulder-shot of Lauren walking past hurridly, deliberately avoiding Chloe. The scene then switches back to Chloe and we see her looking hurt by Lauren ignoring her.

The next part, Lauren considering, now consists of Lauren looking at her phone (mid-close-up) before switching to a close-up of the phone screen showing several messages from Chloe saying:

C: I'm so sorry
C: Please don't ignore me
C: Please, meet me in the park at 4:00 I just want to explain

The scene then ends with a (mid-shot) of Lauren considering whether or not to meet Chloe.

Filming Log - Entry 1

Tuesday 24th September 2013

Today I began my filming and I think I made really good progress. I got a lot done and have scheduled in another time to film with my talent.

What I filmed? 

Scene 1

Opens with a shot of the Lauren (main character) on her own in the common room. She is in the foreground and behind her you can see a group of people looking and laughing. She has an annoyed look on her face, there is then a racking focus as the group leader throws a scrunched up ball of paper at her.  When it hits her the bully says, "Oh sorry, did I hit you, I was aiming for the bin." The way she says it is clearly sarcastic.There is then another racking focus back to the main character looking even more annoyed as she hurriedly picks up her things and leaves the room. The shot tracks her as she leaves and you can hear the group in the back laughing as she goes.

Scene 2

This scene is different from my story board as it now involves a text conversation. For this reason it is a close-up of Lauren's phone screen as she has a text conversation with her friend.

Scene 6

The final scene is Lauren and Chloe walking into the common room together, (mid shot/tracking shot of them walking in) and the bullies looking at the Chloe like she's infected (mid-shot of the bully/friend's old group looking disgusted) and Chloe and Lauren ignore them no longer caring. (mid-shot of them looking over their shoulders, maybe waving mockingly)

 

Next Tuesday (1st October 2013) I intend to film both of the park scenes and possibly the corridor scene depending on how long the park scenes take.

Influential Short Film

Influential short film:

The Desk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_kIyihNd-A

'The Desk' is a short film that follows Peter as he starts a new school. He has yet to make friends and so when he is bored in class he writes on the desk. The next day when he has the same class he finds that someone called Julie has written a message back. This continues for a few days until one day he is in his lesson and the message back appears before his eyes. This shocks him at first but it turns out the desk is some sort of time portal and both of them are in the same room but at different times. He and Julie continue to talk to each other until one day his class gets moved. Things go back to the way they were before and one day, on the way to his new class he drops his folders, a girl comes to help him but no more is said about the encounter. The final scene shows the teacher introducing a new student to the class and he instantly knows she is Julie, she is also the girl who helped him in the corridor. They have finally met.

Although the plot line for my film centers around a different idea there are many similarities between the two. For example:
 

Both show a friendship where the people involved have never 'knowingly' met
 

The friendship in the desk grows as Julie and Peter write messages to each other on the desk.
 

In mine the friendship grows as Chloe and Lauren converse via text. 
 

In both the audience meets the other character at the same time as the main character after having already seen them in another scene
 

In the desk Julie and Peter met in the corridor before they knew each other and we then discover the girl is Julie when she joins his class.
 

In mine Chloe sits with the group who bully Lauren but the audience and Lauren don't discover this until they meet in the park.
 

Both contain very little audible dialogue
 

The desk features conversations almost exclusively written on the desk.
 

Mine shows the conversations through texts with only one scene of dialogue.

Idea development

When thinking of how I am going to film the scenes in my film I encountered some problems with the computer screen scenes. Firstly, I want to make it realistic and it is unlikely that Lauren would be able to access her pen-friend account at school. Secondly I didn't know how to make a fake website that wouldn't look obviously fake and would work properly, so, to solve these problems I have decided that instead, the two computer screen scenes will be replaced with text conversations between the friends. I feel this will also make my film more up-to-date and appealing as texting is a large part of the modern world.

Who will be my talent?

I have encountered several problems when deciding on who my talent will be. Issue 1 is location. Ideally I want to film some sections at my house but I live quite a long way away from school and so it would be hard to get any of the people I would like to be my talent to the location I have in mind. One solution would be to have a family member star in my film or star in it myself but the scenes filmed at home require someone physically moving the camera, which is something I need to do to ensure it is done how I want it. This leaves my only solution to find another location.

Main Character - Lauren: Kyra Summers

Bully/pen-friend - Chloe: Emily Corcoran

Group of bullies: Chloe Ryan, Beth Mullen, Emily Corcoran

I have solved the problem of location by changing the scenes that involved using my house to scenes that I can film at school.

Shooting Schedule

What I need to shoot - in order of appearance 

Scene 1
common room 1

 

Scene 2

walking home/in the computer room

computer screen 1

sitting on the floor/repeated coming through the door

Scene 3

park 1

Scene 4

corridor

computer screen 2

considering

Scene 5

park 2

Scene 6

common room 2

What can I shoot at the same time?

• common room 1 and 2
• corridor
• computer screen 1 and 2
• sitting on floor/in the computer room and considering
• park 1 and 2

Problems I may encounter

I am aware that my schedule can only be a rough guide as due to weather restrictions I may not be able to film outside at the times I want to. I also have to be aware of when my talent are available for filming and take this into account. 

Schedule

23/9 - 4/10/2013
phone 1 and 2
common room 1 and 2 
corridor 
sitting on the bench/considering

1/10/2013
park 1 and park 2

Subsidiary Task Planning

Now that I have storyboarded my film I can begin to consider ideas for my subsidiary tasks. At this stage any idea are only rough as it is likely my film will change over the process however, I feel it will be easier to create my subsidiary tasks when the time comes if I have been thinking about ideas throughout the process. Here are my ideas so far:

Poster

I do have one idea and this is that the main background will be a faded image of Lauren texting. The bottom of the poster will have two silhouetted images on either side of the page. One will be Chloe and one will be Lauren. This will give the impression that they are meeting. The image of Lauren texting will fade into a creamy/white colour and the silhouettes will make a sharp contrast to this background. The title will then be at the top of the page and a tag line or sell line will be between the silhouettes at the bottom.

very rough draft of what my idea would look like

Review Page

As I am unfamiliar with film review pages I will be completing textual analysis of several existing film review pages to find out the conventions and use this information accordingly. From the little I do know I imagine my review page will be similar to my idea for a poster and will use some of the same imagery. I will also draw on the skills I gained at AS which taught me about working in print and about setting out magazine double page spreads.

Storyboard - Pen-friends

Scene 1

Opens with a shot of Lauren (main character) on her own in the common room. She is in the foreground and behind her you can see a group of people looking and laughing. She has an annoyed look on her face, there is then a racking focus as the group leader throws a scrunched up ball of paper at her.  When it hits her the bully says, "Oh sorry, did I hit you, I was aiming for the bin." The way she says it is clearly sarcastic.There is then another racking focus back to the main character looking even more annoyed as she hurriedly picks up her things and leaves the room. The shot tracks her as she leaves and you can hear the group in the back laughing as she goes. The audience can see Chloe (pen-friend/bully) looking clearly uncomfortable at the bullying in the background but the audience and Lauren don't know her true identity yet.

Scene 2

Opens with Lauren walking home and into her house quickly as if in an excited hurry. (mid-long shot of her walking along the street) Once inside she dumps her bag and rushes to her computer. (close up of bag as it is dumped) She presses the on button (close up of her pressing button) and is clearly impatient as it loads. (mid-shot of her next to her computer as it loads) Once it's loaded she starts a conversation with her pen friend...

INSERT PHOTO OF MY HOUSE

(close up of the screen as Lauren opens the programme and types/sends the first message. Close up of screen continues as the conversation ensues)

Lauren (L): Hey :D
Chloe - Cool-chick (C-C): Hey :D
L: What you been up to?
C-C: Not much, school...you?
L: Same...what is the point?
C-C: I know right!?
L: I've been thinking...maybe we should meet up?
C-C: Yeah, why not? :D
L: :D Ok, when?
C-C: How about we meet tomorrow in the park? 4pm?
L: Sounds good to me! :D
C-C: Cool! Can't wait :D
L: Me neither! :D

The scene ends with a circular tracking shot of her sitting talking on her computer having clearly more fun than at school

Scene 3

The next scene is Lauren waiting on a swing in the park for her pen-friend to arrive. (mid-long shot of her sitting on the swing looking at her phone) She keeps checking her watch  and looks a little nervous. (close-up of watch face showing the time as 5:00) She then looks up to see her Chloe walking towards her. (long shot of her friend) The camera then zooms into the Chloe's face and the audience can see that she is one of the ones bullying Lauren. (close up) Chloe looks worried because she knows that the person she enjoys talking to so much is the person she lets be bullied at school. Switches to a close up of the Lauren's face. She looks shocked and hurt. Switches back to a close up of the Chloe as she says "Hi" nervously.  Switches back to Lauren who shakes her head and runs away beginning to cry.

Scene 4

The next scene is in the corridor. Mid-shot of the Lauren walking down the hall. She see's Chloe who smiles at her and Lauren puts her head down and walks off quickly. Audience can see Chloe looking upset over the Lauren's shoulder. It then switches to a close up of a computer screen again and shows a series of messages from the Chloe to the Lauren. Each says a different time during the day.

C: I'm so sorry
C: Please don't ignore me
C: Please, meet me in the park at 4:00 I just want to explain

Switches to a shot of the Lauren looking at the screen and then turning to look at the door considering. (over the shoulder shot)

Scene 5

The next scene is Lauren walking around the corner ready to meet Chloe. (point of view shot)  As she rounds the corner Chloe comes into view and stands up when she sees Lauren coming. Lauren walks straight past and goes to sit on the swing behind Chloe. (mid-long shot) Chloe sits down next to her and begins explaining herself.

C: I'm really sorry (looks over at Lauren)

L: Why didn't you tell me? (looking at the ground)

C: Because I didn't think you'd believe me if I suddenly came over and said 'Hi, I'm your pen-friend can I sit with you?' (looks away from the main character and begins twiddling her thumbs whilst looking at the ground)

L: Why didn't you stick up for me? (looks at her sharply before looking away again)

C: I don't know. I wish I had...I know I should have done and I know you probably hate me but I really miss talking to you. You're a really great person and a really good friend. Please just let me sit with you. (looks at the Lauren pleadingly)

L: (Lauren looks up at Chloe contemplating.) You know they'll start bullying you too? (close up of Lauren as she says this)

C: I don't care, we can stand up to them together (close up of Chloe as she replies)

L: (close up of Lauren as she smiles) Ok then

(They hug)

Scene 6

The final scene is Lauren and Chloe walking into the common room together, (mid shot/tracking shot of them walking in) and the bullies looking at the Chloe like she's infected. (mid-shot of the Chloe's old group looking disgusted) Chloe and Lauren ignore them no longer caring and the scene ends. (mid-shot of them looking over their shoulders, maybe waving mockingly)

To Do List

1. Story board and take photos of locations (photo story board) 13/9/2013
2. Write Script 13/9/2013
3. Think about who my talent is going to be 13/9/2013
4. Write a shooting schedule 13/09/2013
5. Begin filming 16/9/2013
6. Finish filming 30/9/2013

Target Audience Profile

As Pen-friends is a 'teen drama' my target audience is obviously going to be teenagers. Here is an example of an average watcher for my short film.

Gender: Female - I feel that my target audience is more likely be female than male because the way the two female friends make up at the end of the film is more typical of the way girls resolve issues or fallouts and so is more relate-able to teenage girls. 

Age: 14 - 19

Socio-economic grouping: E - In full time education

Social Activities: Watching films/TV, reading, blogging, using social networking sites, listening to music, watching videos/vlogs on Youtube and meeting friends

I think my target audience is most likely to participate in activities along these lines because people participating in these activities will be more likely to come across adverts for my film.

I think that appealing to a younger demographic will help my film's popularity as teenagers are the widest users of new technologies such as social networking sites and Youtube. Appealing to them will mean that they are more likely to come across my film, like it and share their finding with their friends. 

Audience, narrative, representations and genre

Now thatI have decided on an idea for my film I have thought about who my target audience will be, the representations I will convey and the narrative I will use.

Genre:
Teen Drama

Audience:
Teenagers aged between 14 and 19. (See my Target Audience Profile post for a more detailed description.)

Narrative:
My short film will have almost no dialogue so I will mainly set the mood using editing techniques such as colour correction, the addition of non-diegetic sound and through mise en scene and the camera angles I use. For example, close ups to show expression, dull colours to convey a sad mood, sad/happy music etc.

Representations:
The representations I intend to convey will be everyday issues that my target audience (teenagers) might face. The main themes will be bullying, on-line friendships and real friendships. Although these representations are simple I feel they will both interest and help my target audience.

Final idea for my short film

From my initial ideas I have decided to go with the idea 'Pen-friends.'

Pen-friends - Teen Drama

Film about a girl who's best friend is her pen-friend. She doesn't have a very good life at school. She doesn't always get on with everyone and gets bullied but she finds comfort in her pen-friend. Film flashes between her normal rubbish life and her conversations with her pen-friend. (Close ups of computer screen as they type/talk) She talks to her pen-friend about everything and takes it as a chance to completely forget about everything around her. (360 degree pan of her on her computer looking happy, laughing etc. maybe go round twice) Ends up with her inviting her friend to stay with her and her friend agreeing. This film would have very little talking (I would maybe only have bits of dialogue coming through when I'm showing her being sad) It would mainly come through from the on screen conversations and the music.

I have decided to go with this idea because I feel I will find it easier to execute it to the best of my abilities given the equipment and resources I have available to me. 

Ideas for my short film

As I already mentioned, I am going to be creating a short film for my coursework. I have decided this because I feel I can be more creative with my ideas for a short film and make better use of the resources available to me. I have already looked at some of the conventions if short films and I have since been thinking about possible ideas.

Ideas

1. My Life - Comedy

A teenage girl who keeps being unlucky in the most unfortunate situations. For example, she walks into a locker when she see's the guy she likes, she falls up the stairs in front of half the school, she gets pulled along by her dog as he chases a runner etc.

Opens with a flash through her life using really short snippets of footage and jump cuts before it stops on her standing outside school preparing to walk through the door. (possible fish bowl lens effect) This would all happen in the time it takes for her voice over to say "My name is (character's name) and this is my life." The words 'my life' would appear on the screen at the same time as the screen shows her preparing to go into school and the words are said in the voice over.

2. Pen-friends - Teen Drama

Film about a girl who's best friend is her pen-friend. She doesn't have a very good life at school because she doesn't always get on with everyone and gets bullied but she finds comfort in her pen-friend. Film flashes between her normal rubbish life and her conversations with her pen-friend. (Close ups of computer screen as they type/talk) She talks to her pen-friend about everything and takes it as a chance to completely forget about everything around her. (360 degree pan of her on her computer looking happy, laughing etc. maybe go round twice) Ends up with her inviting her friend to stay with her and her friend agreeing. This film would have very little talking (I would maybe only have bits of dialogue coming through when I'm showing her being sad) It would mainly come through from the on screen conversations and the music.

Inspiration

1. My life

This inspiration for 'My life' came after I watched a short film called ‘Love Sick.’ I liked the fact it was a comedy and that it mainly used a voice over. If I made my first idea I would take these two ideas from the film and put them into my own film. 

Love Sick

2. Pen-friends

The inspiration for my pen-friend idea came from the fact that my sister has recently started a correspondence with a pen-friend in China. I was also watching the film ‘The Holiday’ and at one point two of the characters start talking over email and I like the way they filmed them typing with a close up of the computer screen. I will also take inspiration from the short film ‘The Desk.’ Similar to my idea most of the dialogue comes from two of the characters talking on a desk. 

The Desk